


Wounded

by Sunstar77



Category: Torchwood
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-29 03:21:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13918311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunstar77/pseuds/Sunstar77
Summary: After the events of "Combat", Gwen and Owen have a little talk.





	Wounded

Gwen helped Owen down the corridor, his left arm slung over her shoulders and her arm around his waist. She could feel the thick swath of bandages under his t-shirt. It had surprised her how weak he was, even after several days in hospital. 

"Oh, let go of me, Cooper. I'm not a fucking invalid," Owen growled as Gwen unlocked the door to his flat. 

_Well, thank god, his cheerful personality's remained intact_ , Gwen thought sarcastically to herself.

She raised an eyebrow. "Leave you here then, should I? All right, have a good night, Owen. See you at work tomorrow." She shook his arm off her shoulders and took a few steps down the hallway. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Owen slide slowly down the wall. She kept walking.

Jack had asked her to bring Owen home from the hospital. He told Gwen of his fear that Owen would do something to hurt himself. However, she really didn't want to spend the night with Owen with him acting like a prat.

She heard him take a deep breath, and then his voice calling to her. "Gwen! All right, I’m sorry. Gwen, come on please, I need your help."

Gwen turned slowly and looked at Owen. Despite everything, they were still friends and she found it hard to see him like this. Shaking her head, she came back. She helped him stand upright again and into the flat. "Now, I know that was hard to say," she remarked with a smirk and shut the door behind them.

"Which part?" Owen grumbled.

She smiled. "All of it. Right, now, where'd you want to go? Couch or bed?"

"Couch. I've been in bed for too long." He gave her a grim smile. "Christ, never thought I'd say that."

She laughed a little and helped him over to the couch. He hissed as he sat down, holding his stomach. "I have your pain tablets here somewhere." Gwen started digging in her purse. Owen put a hand on hers to stop her. She looked up at him.

"I'd rather have a drink. There's a bottle of scotch in the cupboard." He glanced over his shoulder at the kitchen.

"Should you be drinking?" She went into the kitchen and found the bottle and two glasses.

"As long as I don't take any of those tablets, yeah," he called back.

Gwen carried the bottle and glasses back out to the lounge. She set them down on the coffee table and poured them each a measure. Owen took his glass from her and downed it in one go. He held the empty glass out to her. She rolled her eyes and poured him another, before picking up her own.

"Why, Owen? Why'd you do it?" Gwen asked, eyes wide and caring.

Owen stared at his glass and took a deep breath. "I fell in love with Diane Holmes."

"Oh," she squeaked, unsure what else to say. Her lover just told her he loved someone else. Toshiko had mentioned that Owen and Diane had had a thing, but she never thought it had been serious. Gwen felt her stomach sink a little.

"Then she left me." Owen gave a strange little half smile. "I thought... I don't know what I thought."

Gwen put her hand on his arm. "I'm so sorry, Owen."

Owen closed his eyes and shook off her hand. "Don't, Gwen. Don't be nice to me. Don't pretend it doesn't bother you that I just told you I loved another woman." He poured himself another drink.

She settled back against the couch. "How I can I judge you, Owen? After what I've been doing to Rhys. By my thinking, we're in the same spot, you and I. Maybe we deserve each other."

Owen leaned his head back and closed his eyes. "Shouldn't you be home with Rhys?"

Gwen looked suddenly uncomfortable. "I've been avoiding him."

He opened his eyes. "Why?"

She fidgeted. "I told him about us. And then I retconned him."

"What?" Owen exploded. He sat up to fast and hissed in pain. "What the hell were you thinking, Gwen? Didn't you learn anything from Suzie?"

Gwen dropped her head into her hands. "I had to tell him. I wanted him to forgive me." Her voice came out muffled by her hands.

"Did he?" Owen's voice had an edge of cruelty.

She shook her head. "The retcon worked too fast." Gwen curled up in the corner of the couch.

Owen stared at her. "Ianto's been monitoring retcon usage since that thing with Suzie. Jack's going to find out and you'll be in a world of trouble."

"Shit," she whispered.

"God, we're a mess," Owen mumbled. Gwen nodded miserably and they fell silent. Periodically, one of them would pour themselves another drink.

Owen finally broke the silence. "It's all your fault, you know."

Gwen raised her head. "What is?"

Owen made a broad, slightly unsteady gesture. Gwen wondered if Owen was drunk. "All of it. I was, we were, happy with our lives before Jack hired you."

Gwen snorted. "You were? Seems to me you were just as miserable before I came. You were practically raping the pub-going population of Cardiff with that spray of yours. Suzie was well on her way to becoming a serial killer. Ianto was hiding his psychotic cyber girlfriend in your basement and Jack and Tosh were practically inhuman. The difference was I was happy and that made the rest of you see how miserable you were." The words flowed out in an angry rush. Maybe Torchwood would have been better if Jack had never enticed her in.

"Same difference." He sounded just as angry about it.

"No!" she practically shouted. She could feel hot tears burning the backs of her eyes and she blinked hard to keep them back. "You don't get to be angry about this, Owen Harper. I liked my life before I met you lot." Gwen couldn't hold the tears back any longer and they streamed down her face. "And you took that all away from me. I hate you," she declared, breaking down. "I hate you," she kept repeating, curling into herself.

Owen slowly made his way to her side of the couch. "You don't," he said gently, pulling her into his arms. He rocked her back and forth. "You don’t hate me, Gwen."

Gwen's breath hitched as she fought to control her emotions. She sniffled and took a deep breath. She shook her head from side to side. "I want to hate you," she whispered finally. "It would be easier to hate you. It would be so much easier not to love you, Owen." Gwen waited for the joke at her expense, the cruel barb at how pathetic she must seem to him, but it never came. She raised her head and found Owen staring at her.

"I know exactly how you feel." Gwen tried to scoff at this statement, but Owen went on. "I liked being a bastard. Meant I didn't get hurt. And then you came around and everything was new to you and you were so alive and vibrant and normal and I just fell. I'm not sure I'd ever been in love before. But it makes you weak, because suddenly you feel everything. And I didn't like that." He raised a hand to cup her cheek, sliding his hand back into her hair. "We are so fucked up, Cooper."

She giggled a little. "What are we going to do, Owen?" Gwen wiped the remains of her tears away.

"Have a shag?" he said with a suggestive grin.

"That's your answer for everything," Gwen protested. "'Sides, are you even up for it? You could barely stand a few hours ago."

Owen fixed her with a look. "Sweetheart, I don’t need to stand to make you come."

Gwen rolled her eyes and stood up with a sigh. "Come on. To bed with you. For a nap," she added at Owen's expression of delight. "Maybe later, we can play doctor." She grinned impishly and helped him up to his bedroom.


End file.
